


Escape and Acceptance

by angellteeth



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, FUCK, Found Family, Gen, So yeah, but it got too long, but then december happened, her parents r sucky n controlling so yeah, maybe ig, out of no where, still gonna use the prompts for the title tho <3, this was also supposed be for PLATOVEMBER, this was supposed to be a oneshot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27883792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellteeth/pseuds/angellteeth
Summary: Pacifica can't take her family. Better get a new one.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> entire concept came from [godlymoss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/godlymoss/pseuds/godlymoss) so yeah <3  
> literally no idea if any of this is logical so yeah ❤

Pacifica walked through the park, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Her parents were just... Non-stop.

She couldn't be in the same house as them anymore. It was big, sure, but it was no _mansion_ , and 20,000 square feet was about what she needed between her and them right now.

She wasn't sure where she was going, exactly.

She could visit her friends. But they didn't exactly like her as much since her dad had blown all their money in the apocalypse. She couldn't tell if it was because they had less now, or if it was because her dad swore fealty to a demon on sight.

It could very well be both.

She really wouldn't blame them. For the latter, at least. Even if she wouldn't turn him to stone for it, she had a hard time looking her dad in the eye after that. It had been a little over a month and she still did.

Considering the former, however, left a bitter taste in her mouth, no matter how hypocritical.

At least she had _grown_ as a person a little, and hung out with the Pines kids at their party. And it wasn't just because they saved her life and also the world.

She didn't notice the park melting into the forest, surrounding her with trees.

The Pines kid were really some of the only kids she could tolerate in that stupid town. 

Maybe it was because they weren't _from_ that stupid town. They didn't know who she was on sight, and they started off more or less hating her.

She'd hesitate to call them friends (they very well could still hate her), but it was refreshing to meet a couple of kids on her own and actually build some sort of relationship, instead of her dad just telling her to hang out with one of his friend's kids and immediately being at the top of the hierarchy.

Things get a little boring at the top, especially in a tiny dead end town like Gravity Falls, and it was nice to have a challenge.

Unbidden, she found herself walking in the direction of her old mansion.

She scoffed, turning away from the path and taking a new one.

Even after some of her personal growth, that stupid hillbilly buying it left just as bitter as her friends did. She really had no right to feel like that though, did she?

He was richer than her now, after all. And he'd technically funded her whole family. And he clearly wasn't stupid, if he was selling his machines to the government.

She was bitter about it anyways. Her life had been upended, after all. So that should be fine.

She was glad to have the mansion out of her sight.

Eventually the path melted into a dirt road she had come to recognize, after a few private visits to the forest in the back end of summer. Regrettably, she wasn't in a car this time.

It was the exact place her parents would kill her for being in, she'd damaged their reputation enough, and that little rush of adrenaline at rebellion was just what her spirits needed.

_I want to be alone_ shifted perfectly into _I want to piss of my parents_ and she walked up to the door of The Mystery Shack. 

The little bell that rung when she opened the door made her flinch and freeze.

For a second, she forgot where she was and tried to remember what order she'd failed to follow, before some woman's voice made her blink back into reality.

"Welcome to The Mystery Shack, kiddo!" The lady standing behind the counter smiled at her.

She didn't recognize this woman, she hadn't been around The Shack since the party. Her voice was infinitely more welcoming than her own mother's.

Still a little dazed, she just gave her a bit of a wave and walked through the small selection of little souvenirs, making sure not to look to much at the woman at the counter. Or the slightly horrifying statue next to it.

Bumper stickers, bobble heads, snow globes, clothing. She had no intention of actually buying anything when she'd come in, she just wanted to be there because he parents wouldn't want her there.

But wasn't the point of rebellion doing something you weren't supposed to do, and making sure the authority knew you'd don't it?

She grabbed a shirt at random, a black shirt covered in neon green question marks with "The Mystery Shack" written on the back. She could only describe it as tacky.

It was definitely the loudest thing she could bring home.

She took it up the counter and paid for it without a word, and immediately changed into it in the bathroom.

The switch from a thick long sleeve shirt to the thin t shirt made her entirely aware that it was getting cold, and The Shack was painfully underfunded. It wasn't bad at the moment, but it she'd be shivering pretty hard by the time she was home.

She'd just have to deal with it. She was making a statement, after all.

She left the bathroom, holding her shirt and wishing she'd brought some kind of bag, and almost left The Shack, before the lady stopped her.

"Ya know kid, it's getting pretty chilly out, and a little late. Ya should probably wait to change your shirt till you're home." She leaned over the counter a little to look her in the eye.

She talked to her like she didn't know who Pacifica was. In her current state, that was a blessing.

"I'll be fine. You wouldn't get it, but I really need to wear this shirt."

The woman considered her for a second, before coming out from behind the counter and pulling a hoodie off the rack.

She checked the size and shrugged before offering it to Pacifica with a smile.

"On the house."

Pacifica stared at her, having a hard time believing anyone working at this place would pass up a good sale, before taking the hoodie.

"Thanks, I guess."

She pulled the hoodie on as she opened the door, stiffening at the bell, and started walking home.


	2. Chapter 2

Back home, her entrance was inconspicuous. She could still make the choice to avoid her parents all together, go to her room, change her clothes, they never needed to know. The anxiety building in her gut told her that was the right choice.

The smart choice.

A choice she had decided against an hour ago at The Shack. 

She pulled off the sweater and made a point of walking through the kitchen, where her parents were halfway through their dinner. It never failed to surprise her that they actually ate together.

They both paused when she got a cup of water, and they got a good look at her.

"Pacifica, dear, what are you wearing." Her mother phrased it as a demand, rather than a question.

Pacifica kept her back turned to them for a second more, draining half the cup and refilling it, her parents eyes boring into the logo on her back.

She turned around slowly, any answer dying on her tongue.

Maintaining eye contact was hard enough.

"Go up to your room and change out of those... Eugh.." Her father could only describe the shirt with a shudder. "Who knows how many people have seen you in it by now."

She only stood up a little straighter, squaring her shoulders.

Her father raised an eyebrow, pulling the small bell from his pocket. That _stupid_ bell.

The sight of it was almost enough to make her yield.

The ringing was most definitely worse.

It grated on her ears and made her shake. She stopped being able to even look him in the eye, staring pointedly at the wall.

She'd ignored his bell a few times, since the ball. She could do it again.

But those matters... They'd been important. Lives, integrity, independence.

More important than a shirt.

The ringing went on and on and her grip on the cup became white knuckled, her shaking hands making her spill some of the water.

In the end, all she could do was crumble, nod with a quiet _Yes sir_ , and scurry off to her room.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day had been a hell of drudgery and unwanted advise from her parents.

Mostly uncomfortable dating advise.

Her dad's friends had sons who would be taking over their fathers businesses and make her a rather wealthy person. They seemed to forget the fact she wasn't even thirteen, and wouldn't be for a month, and that these boys were people she'd met twice at most.

She'd already tried, ages ago near the beginning of the year, to steer conversations like this towards her father teaching her how to be successful in business herself, but they both scoffed.

They seemed intent on having her end up like her mother.

She could only sit and wait, as her parents drained away her Sunday morning, trying to tune them out but look like she was still listening.

The whole of the conversation was pointless, anyways. She didn't even like boys in the first place.

Eventually they finally left, leaving to have brunch with their associates and try and maintain some of their status and giving her some peace.

There wasn't really much for her do at home, except feel alone in the world, so she chose to leave.

Sometimes the mall had something decent, and at least it was a place to go where things felt less isolated.

Though, maybe it was too unisolated.

People stared and muttered about her, which she was used to. But she wasn't so used to the negative opinion. Sure, sometimes people looked at her with an "eat the rich" type glare, but it wasn't that often.

And now all she got was pitying looks, people muttering about her dad, people saying she'd cracked under the stress because she'd shown up to photoshoot covered in trash, chuckling amongst themselves because they "finally got what was coming to them".

It made her feel drained.

Being around the public when things were normal made her feel tired but this left her feeling empty.

She made rounds through various stores, trying to look casual, like she wasn't listening. If anyone knew they got to her she'd die on the spot. When she left she could only hope it didn't look like she was running away.


	4. Chapter 4

She once again found herself in the park alone, then isolated in the forest, then at the door of The Mystery Shack.

She didn't have any reason to be there. She'd made her point yesterday. But the sense of isolation was setting in and there wasn't really anywhere else in town where she could be in company that didn't stare.

The bell at the door made her clench her fists.

The woman who'd had been there yesterday was replaced with the Pines kid's man servant, that had taken over The Shack. It was Soos, maybe.

"Hey there little dude, what can I do ya for?" 

The overly casual way he spoke to her was weird, and a little irritating. But that's what she'd wanted, wasn't it? To be around someone who didn't care, but in a different way from how her parents didn't care?

"Nothing for now, Man Serv- er- Mr Mystery."

Being addressed with the title _Mr Mystery_ seemed to make him weirdly happy, grinning to himself with that weird little buck tooth.

She gave him an awkward half smile and wandered around the one room gift shop, before settling to hang around the back, fidgeting with snow globes and the like, full of glitter.

Reminded her of that goofy girl, Mabel. 

Though could she really call her goofy, with the part she'd played in saving all their lives? Maybe she hadn't grown that much at all.

Maybe she still just some rotten girl. Another link in the world's worst chain.

Did being there help her case at all? Did hanging around The Shack somehow prove that she was at least a little better?

Maybe she was a lost cause.

She'd spent twelve years being influenced by her parents and would be influenced more. She'd only been "good" for a month. Probably less.

She'd probably never be worse than them, but she'd barely ever be better and she didn't have enough of a will to guarantee anything better.

It had taken someone else to make her change for the better, and it would take someone else to keep her that way. 

But there wasn't really anyone else, especially if she wasn't willing to be in public anymore.

She crossed her arms, digging her nails into her arms. Her stupid manicured nails that she suddenly wanted to rip off. Everything she was, was a testament to what she didn't quite want to be anymore.

And there really wasn't anything she could do about it.

She let go of her arms, defeated, and let them hang limply at her sides. They swung a little, carried by the momentum, and she knocked a snow globe off the shelf by accident.

It shattered, spreading glass and the thick liquid everywhere, and made her flinch, the foot closest to the mess raised slightly off the floor.

The man, Soos, came over rather quickly, the noise carrying in the small space.

She stared at the largest hunks of glass, not moving, as if standing still enough would mean standing still enough would let her avoid whatever punishment Soos could dish out.

"Oh, bummer." Was all he said, kneeling down to pick up the largest pits of glass and the base of the snow globe.

He tossed it in the nearest trash can, one in the bathroom, and got a broom and towel to clean up the rest.

Pacifica snapped out of it, standing up straight with both feet on the ground, and picked up another snow globe, turning it over to see the little price sticker on the bottom.

Real cheap.

She set it back down, a little more carefully than normal, and pulled out her credit card, waiting for Soos to finish cleaning.

He swept up the rest of the glass and got rid of it, and dried up the liquid.

In the end, there were still bits of glitter on the floor.

He stood back up straight and put the towel away, going back to stand behind the counter.

Pacifica went up and offered her credit card before saying anything.

"Sorry about the snow globe."

"Oh don't worry about it, dude." He took the credit card and stared at it for a second, something registering. "Oh, right. Cash only bro."

He handed it back, and she realized something herself.

"I don't have any cash on me."

"Eh, no trouble. Just pay it back some other time." He shrugged, and easy smile on his face.

She lingered, not sure why he'd trust that she'd do that, before shrugging herself.

It was better than having to work for it.

"Sure." She nodded, and left, the bell going off and making her walk faster.


End file.
